Bonus
Arrondissement de paris
XIV
2,821
I, II, III et IV
2,811
XIX
2,826
IX
2,816
XV
2,822
V
2,812
XVI
2,823
VI
2,813
XVII
2,824
VII
2,814
XVIII
2,825
VIII
2,815
XX
2,827
X
2,817
XI
2,818
XII
2,819
XIII
2,820
Bonus
2,828
Best Of PARISII / 5 W's!
Just a few days ago, we were presenting you "Tracked Movements", an edit of (nearly) lost Paris skate footage filmed by Franck Pierron at the dusk of the former century that we had put together for the Adidas event Das Days in the City of Lights a few weeks back... Well, our selection of screened films also comprised another original edit: a "best of" type of edit of the footage shot a few years back by Greg Dezecot and Olivier Fanchon for their crazy love child of a project aiming at documenting every spot in every district of the French capital: Parisii. Two years ago, the winning duo had already (somehow) managed to trim those years worth of footage down into a full-length; already quite the commendable feat, so imagine Greg's face when now requested to lay off his young father's duties to get back at it and do even more curating! But he pulled through, resulting in this Best Of Parisii edit we're passing on to you now, as well as some of Greg's words as we also bugged him to answer our 5W's!
LIVE Skateboard Media: How did the idea for this Best Of Parisii come about? In what type of context did you work and how much footage did you have to consider?
Greg Dezecot: The idea with initiated by Benjamin who ordered it for the Das Days LIVE Skateboard Media movie night. He asked Olivier and I if we would be available to edit a best of Parisii montage of those years. Olivier was on a trip then, so I had to handle it by myself. I had to dig through about four or five years worth of footage.
"I kept the chapter-per-district pacing for the edit to represent the essence of the original idea of the project"
LSM: How much time did you have left when the time to edit came about? As a young father with a job and responsabilties, how could you make it?
Greg: I probably started editing about a week or two prior to the deadline, which is super short especially considering my duties as far as my job and kid, I'm a freelancing video editor and of course I was also busy with side gigs for that at the time...
When you have a two-year-old kid, you're stoked to get to see him and spend time with him when you come back home from work, so you can't really work on anything. A child needs your entire attention when they're that young, plus you use up a lot of energy taking care of them. So I could only work when he was asleep, which resulted in being on the computer just for this project from ten to midnight every single night before the deadline.
Greg filming Glen Fox. Ph.: Benjamin Deberdt
LSM: The editing is pretty ambitious in itself all the while succeeding at encapsulating the entire Parisii years-long saga into one five-minute clip... Why this final selection of footage and skaters, what did you try to focus on conveying and did you make a point to keep the edit divided in chapters for each district of Paris?
Greg: Yes, again we're talking four years of footage at the very least. I really had to trim it down.
I kept the chapter-per-district pacing for the edit to represent the essence of the original idea of the project.
As far as the tricks, I really picked what I liked the best, and tried to showcase as many of the skaters who ever were involved in Parisii as possible.
My original selection of keepers was a lot longer than what Benjamin was looking for, actually. He was looking for a three-minute edit, so I went ahead and trimmed my original selection even further down and we ended up agreeing on this five-minute format.
LSM: Who helped you out on the editing, the soundtrack?
Greg: As I was saying, the editing was all me this time around.
As far as the soundtrack, I once again got in touch with the great Vincent Perrin, a skater and musician from Paris who had already written the score for the Parisii Remix full-length we dropped in 2016. This time around, the track is by one of his bands: Carquois.
Greg, 2013. Ph.: Benjamin Deberdt
LSM: Where and in which context did the screening go down? Did you get any feedback, what were the reactions like?
Greg: The screening was just on canal Saint Martin, I really liked the program, it really did a great job capturing the vibe of the Paris scene throughout the decades. A great initiative Benjamin handled masterfully.
The audience was transgenerational yet we got reactions from everybody, people were super receptive. The O.G.'s got the spark of the Parisii vibes back, and the younger generations were introduced to Parisii for the most part and were into it!
I got some great feedback which is satisfying after so many years of effort. Someone even told me they would rewatch all the Parisii episodes again - mission complete!
Thanks to Adidas and Live for such an event, I really enjoyed going through all those years of my life again and also huge shouts out to Olivier for always following me throughout this insane adventure Parisii was.
Olivier Fanchon and Mathias Labelle mid-wallie, 2013. Ph.: Greg Dezecot
Parisii / le remix / Santiago Sasson
While waiting for a final premiere showing in its entirety soon at MIMPI in Rio de Janeiro, let's use the excuse of a special day to drop the first excerpt from the remix of all Parisii episodes… Their exploration of the French capitol being over, Greg Dezcot and Olivier Fanchon wanted to give credit and emphasize all efforts (and good laughs) shared over three years by axing edits around the most involved individuals and crews. Who better to start it all than Santiago to give you a feel of the whole thing, since he even played drums and more with his buddy François Perrin to produce the custom soundtrack for it all. Here you get a young, and sometimes even younger, man with various length of facial hair, with an always exploding way with Parisian streets… Let's all get together now, to whish him and happy birthday!
Parisii V / VI / VII trailer!
Greg Dezecot and Olivier Fanchon are about to drop the longest episode since the beginning of the adventure, and had prepared that trailer as a surprise for the Parisian premiere of Static IV… These two are locked in their dungeon polishing the last details of the part dedicated to three arrondissements by the Seine, and rich in often famous spots. But this should help you wait for a few more hours!
Parisii, it's on!
Our Second Off Size project is an offering from two actors in the French scene, Greg Dezecot and Olivier Fanchon. Filmers, as you call them…Under this rather vague moniker, you can find varied sensibilities and talents. These two got the experience of two full lengths with Frame By Frame and Skate Pistols, and this allows them to have a clear vision of what they want to show you now. And this is also why we decided, with Nike's support, to team up with them. You could sum Parisii up in one feeling: the one of discovering a city full of spots, just there for you! But let them give you the grand tour…
You should introduce yourselves, first…
Greg: I am 28, and have been living in Paris for three years, now. Originally, I’m from he countryside, a small town of a thousand inhabitants –outside of Tours–, that get their food delivered by crows, with only one spot: a patch of asphalt in front of my house. That’s it! Paris actually happened when I decided to stop working in skateboarding. I was some sort skate class teacher, with that whole organized sport feel, which really isn’t my thing. So, to be more in line with what I like about skateboarding, I decided to find a job in another passion of mine. I have been filming for a long time now, so I decided to work in that field. So, to be a video editor, I moved to Paris, as this is where all the production companies are located…
Olivier: As for me, I’m 31, and not really a Parisian, as I live in the suburbs! [Laughter] I live real close, in Clamart, in the South of Paris. I moved there in 92, I believe. This is where I started skating, in my small town, and to be frank, this is quite recent that I’m more focused on Paris. As soon as you’re out the inner city, you’re a Parisian, but not really… You’re just the suburb guy! [Laughter]
Did you meet around the Frame By Frame video project?
Olivier: Before that…
Greg: Yep, Olivier had been filming with the Nine Yards guys [Defunct French brand, Ed’s Note] and Sam Partaix was their little kid, then! So, he started filming with Sam, and coming to visit him in Tours. We had grown up skating with Sam, so we meet Oliv’ as he became a regular fixture in Tours.
Olivier: Apart from skateboarding, I really fell for the place, I even thought about moving there, at some point.
Greg: After that, I filmed Sam’s skateshop video, Skate Pistols, and Oliv’ gave us a lot of footage. From there, we started doing this website, called Behind The Lens, with Romain Bâtard, where we would post various montages and photos from a bunch of people… We got tired of it, and thought we should end it with a bang, by putting out a full length on DVD, Frame By Frame.
Olivier: What really got us psyched, with Romain, was Ludo Azémar’s Patchwork video. When we saw it, we thought: “Godamm, that guy just put out a full length with all these people in it, on his own!” We were shook! We decided we had to do something…
Getting ahead, how did the whole Parisii idea developed?
Greg: It didn’t happen overnight… We finished Frame By Frame six months after I had moved to Paris, and as everybody who has filmed a full length skate video, I just wanted to put the camera in the bag, and go skate. I was tired of carrying stuff, but soon enough I got frustrated by all the spot I would see, here, and couldn’t skate because of my level, let’s say. Speaking with JB Gurliat, a photographer that lives here also, we started toying with the idea of a project about Paris, not its skaters. Then came the idea to stay away from putting out a DVD, but to develop something on the web, around a map. It took a while to get to fruition, after that… Some times, I would get loads of footage, and some others not film one thing in six months, so I would end up thinking I’d never actually do it… Then, last year, I spoke Oliv’ into joining the project and refine it wit me, so it wouldn’t just be my vision.
Olivier: On Frame By Frame, we actually edited one part together, which was the Paris one, incidentally. And we really enjoyed working together. And, also, then, we managed to do something about Paris, while still avoiding the famous spots. So we knew it was doable.
Greg: Also, to break that whole program of “Filming, filming, filming” then edit for three months in a row, we arrived to the concept of a blog where we would upload short montages regularly, which we thought was more modern and in the way of how people watch skateboarding videos nowadays.
Olivier: Basically, Greg is an editor, and I am one also, so we do have a good dynamic together, on that whole level!
How would you sum up your first idea, and how it id evolves from there?
Olivier: Personally, after Frame By Frame, I kind of wanted to give up on filming skating, which is why I admire Ludo’s endless enthusiasm… Filming skateboard videos is insanely complicated. It is a bit like doing a full-length movie on your own! At a time, Pacôme Gabrillagues had this site where he would post montages of his friends, where they always looked like they had so much fun, while not necessarily trying to film the latest cool trick. And I knew that if I would ever start another skate project, it would be in that spirit. So, when we started talking with Greg, we quickly agree on that format.
Greg: We can’t film everybody and every single spot, but the basic idea is putting out montages that give that sense of good times from the sessions. That’s the heart of Parisii. While the real difficulty is getting the skaters to break out of that format where a video is to showcase your level. Here the subject is the city, and the session… And having fun!
Olivier: Where usually, when you want to have fun, you don’t film! [Laughter]
Greg: Another difficulty, sometimes, is dragging people out of their territories. That, and the weather…
Olivier: We want to show that every little thing can be fun. And I believe that this is what these types of edits gets you more amped to go skate with your buddies then a “serious part”, because you wish you could have been part of that session!
Greg: Hence to idea to make the city the star, not one skater, or a group of skaters. The star is the city and the fun you can have it. But to avoid it to turn into a maelstrom, we logically decided to divide it by districts. So, it is a team effort, between the skaters and us, to showcase Paris and its neighborhood, which are really diverse and rich…
Sounds like a good program… Any last word?
Greg: I think both of us would like to really thank all the skaters that have been supportive of the project from the beginning, and who skate with us…
From now on, you can follow Parisii on its dedicated space and map.
